But Meyers says Rose is distorting the truth. Rossie, he says, merely helped the Woods structure their limited liability companies for tax purposes.

There was no begging, either. In fact, at one point, Rose actively tried to block the Wood family from hiring a lawyer, Meyers says.

The Woods, Meyers adds, had no choice but to file bankruptcy in order to get out of their "agreements" with Rose.

Jack Rose, back when New Times last had reason to write about him.

"Margaret Wood Carl hired Jack and his companies thinking they were the experts," Meyers says. "But if you hire a heart surgeon and you find out he's horrible, you've got to get the problem corrected. You fire him. And that's exactly what happened here."

Jack Rose will tell you he's stayed out of politics since the Irvin affair.

"I'm not thrusting myself into the political arena, as you say," he tells me. "When good candidates come and ask for support, I support them."

But after asking around, I just don't believe it.

Today, Rob Antoniak is the vice mayor of Goodyear. But when he was a 27-year-old neophyte first running for the council, in 2003, he says he got an unsolicited call from Rose.

"He stated that he knew I was running for office and was asking how he could assist me," Antoniak recalls. "I neither needed nor desired or his assistance . . . I had other plans for my campaign." Antoniak took a pass.

What's most fascinating about that incident, I think, is the timing. It was December 2002 when a federal jury agreed on the staggering $60 million verdict against Corporation Commissioner Irvin, for interfering with the utility company sale and trying to help Rose make money. It was 2003 when Irvin resigned in the face of impeachment.

During that same timeframe, Rose was asking a would-be councilman how he could help him — even as he was being tarred and feathered in the papers almost every day. Talk about chutzpah.

Needless to say, not everyone in Goodyear was as prudent as Antoniak. Sources tell me that Rose has raised money for politicians in that city. And one councilman, Frank Cavalier, has admitted that he's a partner in one of the companies accused of bilking the Woods.

And then there's the bank.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason, the feds let Rose and his cronies start West Valley National Bank.

Rose sits on the bank's board of directors. So does Goodyear attorney Mark Dioguardi, who does the legal work for Rose's companies and was also implicated in the Irvin scandal.

At one point, Goodyear Mayor James Cavanaugh was on the bank's board — and Councilman Cavalier's wife still is. Cavanaugh's wife, I'm told, was hired and now works there.

Go figure, the bank handled $1 million of the Woods' $38 million loan. (That's right there in the bankruptcy papers.)

With the loan in default, Rose's empire in financial trouble, and rumors flying, the question is whether Jack Rose will manage to walk away unscathed.

It's kind of amazing, but he did it last time. As I noted earlier, a federal jury agreed in December 2002 on the staggering $60 million verdict against Irvin. And, in 2003, Irvin resigned.

But Rose hardly missed a step. What the hell — he wasn't on the hook for $60 million. (Claiming poverty, in fact, he'd settled for $60,000.) He also managed to get himself an immunity deal and cooperated with the impeachment proceedings against Irvin.

When the U.S. Attorney announced he wouldn't prosecute, there was no one who could touch him. By 2004, Jack Rose was home free.

He was free to head to the West Valley and start a development company.

Civiterra was the only company lining it's pockets. Jack and John did have the right people on the job, except Civiterra, and the Wood's are blaming Jack for a bad economy. Unfortunately, Jack trusted Civiterra and got burned for it.

I find this story amazing because if you have lived on the west side as long as we have you read and hear stories about the people that are movers and shakers. There was a story every other week in our local paper about Jack Rose buying land EVERYWHERE around the west valley. The paper always quoted him and his company President John Ruggieri how they were going to do all this construction and bring jobs. I think Jack Rose and John Ruggieri had something close to 40 properties totaling millions of dollars in less than two years. Jack Rose and John Ruggieri were west valley Gods. On all those properties they owned you need to find out what happened to those properties, find out who the investors were and I'll bet you will see many local and familiar names. I remember hearing that Jack and John were taking peoples money, buying properties in their names then borrowing money on the value of the land they now owned with investors money and purchased more land before the market tanked. Find out what collateral Jack Rose and John Ruggieri were using and you might find it was the land purchased by the people in the west valley as an investment made by hard earned money which was earned throughout a lifetime of hard and honest farm work.

Better people smarter than me need to stop these people and give back to these families. Jack Rose and John Ruggieri need to be given 10 to 20 for some alone time to reflect what they have done.

I can't believe this article about Jack Rose. I met with him in Buckeye after getting a handful of calls from him. He wanted me to invest in several of his companies all the while telling me about how he represents all of the wealthy farmer/land owners of the Buckeye/Goodyear west valley. This man was so arrogant and smug that he scared the hell out of me. I feel sorry for those poor Woods and everyone else who he talked into entrusting their wealth to this man. He is bad news and he needs to be criminally liable for what he has done to people. Remember what your parents told you, if it sounds to good to be true... it is.

I think that you might find that Jack Rose has also placed the Avondale Mayor in a job with his bank that she has absolutly no qualifications to perform in, or any related financial back ground. You also might look into his relationship with the politically intrenched Miranda Brothers. I remember your paper running an article in which Rose claimed he was financially ruined.